Mtm^Hi^HHBa^RH^^^nBH^HMHBi 



^~rr 



210 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



January, 1915 



How to Make Leafmold 



I have often read, in The Garden Magazine, 

 references to making leafmold. How does one go 

 about it?— E. H. R., Maryland. 



— By leafmold is usually meant the natural forest 

 cover composed of accumulated and more or less 

 decayed leaves. For the purposes of the gardener, 

 however, it may often be prepared artificially by piling 

 leaves in a trench or on the surface of the ground 

 whether with or without the addition of manure, 

 sod, or other waste vegetable material and keeping it 

 fairly moist for six months or a year until it becomes 

 thoroughly broken down. 



Cement for Tree Cavities 



One of the largest limbs on an apple tree has broken 

 off and has left a large hole. I wish to fill it and so 

 save the tree; what kind of cement is used for <hat 

 purpose? — A. N. P., Conn. 



— Cavities in trees are generally filled with a concrete 

 made of any standard Portland cement and clean 

 sharp sand in the proportions of one to three to one to 

 five. If the cavity is very large, gravel or broken 

 stones may be added as in making ordinary concrete, 

 or large stones may be imbedded in the mixture as 

 the hole is filled. The most important detail about 

 this work is the clearing of the cavity preparatory 

 to filling it. Every particle of decayed or diseased 

 wood should be removed and the interior thoroughly 

 washed out with a coal tar disinfectant. 



Green Lice on Lettuce 



What is the best remedy for green lice which attack 

 the lettuce in my greenhouse? — R. M. C, Penna. 

 — The commonest materials for fighting aphis are 

 kerosene emulsion, whale oil soap, and various propri- 

 etary tobacco preparations. If, however, your lettuce 

 is very well developed, you may not care to use any of 

 these on it, in which case a strong fine spray of hot 

 water applied for a few moments will probably remove 

 most of the insects. Young plants, however, can best 

 be treated with the above mentioned preparations. 



Moles in the Lawn 



Last year my lawn was plowed up by moles; I 

 used a trap, but without success. What should I 

 have done to have gotten rid of them? — E. H. T., Conn. 

 — Next to traps the commonest method of fighting 

 moles with which we are familiar is the practice of 

 dropping into their runs whenever they are discovered, 

 one or two castor oil beans. It is said that these 

 speedily rid any lawn or flower bed of these pests, 

 but we don't know. It is possible, also, that bits of 

 potato, carrot, etc., poisoned with strychnine and 

 placed in the furrows would be effective. Sometimes 

 the continual use of a fairly heavy roller over the 

 infested area, thus destroying the ridges and filling 

 up the runs will discourage the animals and send them 

 elsewhere. 



Proper Soil for Spruce 



Do spruces do better on soils that are absolutely 

 acid or have they a preference for soils that have lime 

 in them? — S V. J., New Jersey. 

 — Acid soils are usually of one or the other type — a 

 cold, wet, clayey soil caused by the lack of adequate 

 drainage, or sandy soils in which there is a tendency 

 to drought. Since spruces thrive best on a moist soil 

 that is nevertheless well drained, an acid soil might be 

 an indication of a poor medium for its growth. The 

 character of the soil and its moisture conditions would 

 be improved by a generous application of limestone 

 (say 20 lbs. per 100 sq. ft.) yearly and by adequate 

 drainage. The spruce (Picea vulgaris) and silver fir 

 (Abies picea) have been found to grow luxuriantly in a 

 calcareous soil, containing more than 3 per cent, lime 

 (a relatively high content), but equally well in a 



neighboring strip in which limestone was absent. The 

 conclusion seems to be that the spruce is indifferent 

 to the presence or absence of acidity in the soil, but is 

 affected injuriously by lack of drainage, such as is 

 characteristic of many acid soils — F. W. M. 



For Enriching the Soil 



Is manure better than slacked lime for enriching the 

 soil?-E. R., 111. 



— Manure would be better to enrich the soil than lime, 

 as the latter contains no plant food at all and is only 

 useful in improving the physical quality of extremely 

 light soils or extremely heavy clays and in breaking 

 down insoluble compounds and therefore setting free 

 additional plant food. 



Herbaceous Plants from Seeds 



May I hope to raise good plants from seeds of Miss 

 Lingard phlox, Heuchera sanguinea, Campanula 

 carpatica, anemone Pink, Delphinium Belladonna, 

 Phlox coquelicot, Delphinium formosum, Dianthus 

 White Reserve, Spiraea filipendula, Campanula per- 

 sicifolia, var. Moerheimei? — -L. J. S., New York. 

 — If we should answer your question exactly as you 

 put it, we should say "Yes, you can raise good plants 

 from the seeds of the things that you list." This would 

 be true in regard to their respective vigor, but we 

 suspect that you mean something entirely different. 

 Garden varieties of most plants will not come true 

 from seed, although they will be good enough as 

 plants. Species, of course, can be raised from seed true, 

 to type. Different plants vary enormously in their 

 quality of coming true from seed. We would not expect 

 to get even one per cent, true from perennial phlox, and 

 besides division of roots or increase by cuttings is so 

 easy that the trouble of raising from seed hardly seems 

 worth while. Heuchera sanguinea comes true from 

 seed, as it is a botanical species; and so also is Cam- 

 panula carpatica and Spiraea filipendula. If by ane- 

 mone Pink you mean a named foim of Japanese ane- 

 mone, we would not expect it to grow true from seed. 

 You would get a large percentage of white and a few off 

 type forms in pink and possibly a few true to type. 

 Delphinium Belladonna will come almost true to type 

 if it has been grown apart from allied forms of del- 

 phinium. Delphinium formosum is in the same class 

 and will come very largely true from seed. Dianthus 

 White Reserve or any other will come very largely true, 

 about 90 per cent, when it has been grown under seed 

 growing conditions in a large block of itself by itself. 

 Campanula persicifolia, var. Moerheimei we have 

 never tried. It may come true from seed with home 

 raising, but we should expect, under average garden 

 conditions, that one would get a low percentage of 

 plants true to type. 



Lime on Asparagus Bed 



Did I ruin my asparagus bed by dressing it with 

 lime last fall?— C. E. M., New York. 

 — So far as we know the use of lime on asparagus would 

 not be injurious, but as this crop will stand an acid 

 soil rather better than most, we don't believe that any 

 particular good would be accomplished by the practice. 

 You would have done better to have dressed the bed 

 with well-rotted manure last fall when the ground was 

 frozen slightly, removing the coarser part and digging 

 in the finer part next spring. Following this in late 

 March or early April work in a dressing of ordinary 

 salt, say five pounds per hundred square feet, and later, 

 when the shoots begin to appear, give the bed a light 

 dressing of nitrate of soda. 



Transplanting a Large Tree 



Can I with safety move a large apple tree about 

 fifteen years old, the bole of the tree being about eight 

 inches in diameter? — J. M. J., Quebec. 

 — It is possible that a fifteen-year-old apple tree could 



be moved without suffering permanent injury. Its 

 crop yielding ability would, however, probably be 

 considerably affected for two or three years. We be- 

 lieve, however, the only way to successfully accomplish 

 this task would be by root pruning first, that is, by 

 digging a trench around the tree some four feet from the 

 trunk and deep enough to cut most of the main roots. 

 This should be done during the summer and the earth 

 thrown in the trench again loosely. By winter the 

 cut roots will have sent out a thick crop of small 

 fibrous feeding roots which, when the ground freezes, 

 may be removed with very little injury by cutting 

 round the edges of the former trench and lifting out 

 the entiie frozen ball of roots. While this method is 

 frequently successful in the case of ornamental trees, 

 we are not sure that unless the apple is of considerable 

 value, it would not be wiser to plant a new speciman. 



Storing Bulbs 



Please advise me how to properly care for dahlia 

 and canna roots and gladiolus bulbs after taking out 

 of the garden in the fall. Should they be divided 

 before being put away? — E. J. G., Ohio. 

 — The dahlia, canna, and gladiolus bulbs should be 

 dug before hard frosts and stored in a cool, dry place 

 for the winter. The cellar is used, as a rule, the bulbs 

 of the dahlias and cannas being buried in sand on the 

 floor or in a box. The best way of storing gladiolus 

 bulbs is to place them in common paper bags, a dozen 

 or more in a bag, and hang them from the rafters. If 

 the small bulblets are separated from the parent bulbs, 

 several hundred of them may be placed in a bag. 

 Great care should be observed not to bruise the bulbs, 

 for they are likely to rot at bruised spots. 



Japanese Barberry in Boxes 



On a low retaining wall between two lots I would 

 like to put boxes and grow shrubs in them as a 

 hedge, instead of putting up a wooden fence. 

 Could I grow Japanese barberry in this way? 



— C. D., New Jersey. 



— Japanese barberry will grow in boxes if they are 

 wide enough and deep enough. The box should 

 not be less than two and a half feet wide and two 

 feet deep. This barberry makes a tremendous 

 root growth, hence the need of the wide and deep 

 receptacle. California privet might also be 

 handled in boxes very successfully. 



Trimming Burr and White Oaks 



I have about fifty burr and white oak trees measuring 

 eight to fourteen inches in diameter and thirty to 

 forty feet high. Can they be trimmed without danger 

 of injuring the tree, and at what time of the year is it 

 best to do this? — L. J. P., Iowa. 



— Burr and white oaks will stand a reasonable amount 

 of trimming; in fact, they will do better if the dead 

 wood is removed. The danger lies in cutting back the 

 trees too much at any one time. We would advise 

 taking off one third of the growth during the present 

 fall and winter. The following fall or winter another 

 slight reduction can be made. Do this by thinning 

 out entire limbs rather than by shortening back all of 

 the limbs. 



Mulching the Lawn 



Is it a good practice to leave the fallen leaves of 

 maple and other trees on the lawn during the winter? . 

 — R. M. L., Pa. 



— A lawn is certainly better for having some kind of a 

 covering as a mulch during the winter. If the leaves 

 from the maple trees do not make too heavy a covering 

 and if they are taken off early in the spring, the lawn 

 will be in better condition in the spring than if the 

 leaves were removed this fall. The same result can, 

 of course, be obtained by mulching with other ma- 

 terials, such as well rotted manure. 



